Living
in Southeastern IdahoAlthough southeastern
Idaho lacks craggy mountains, its ranges are wide and long, generally well-watered,
and easily accessible by vehicle and by foot. These are gentle green mountains,
home to deer, elk, and nowadays, cattle. They are places where solitude is the
rule.

The weather in southeastern
Idaho is gentle, but erratic. Multi-year long cycles of drought and wetness
are normal and farming is always a chancy business. The climate is normally
neither very cold in winter nor very hot in summer, and never uncomfortably
humid. Many residents think the weather is close to ideal.

Postcard
view of a bull elk on the Pocatello West Bench, late 1930s. View looks east.
Note the Portneuf River has been channelized with rip-rap, but the concrete
channel has not been built. West Sublette is the east-west street east of
the Portneuf River. The south end of Highland Boulevard is the street west
of the River. The square white building is the present Pocatello Floor Covering
store and showroom. The spire to the left of Red Hill is St. Joseph's Catholic
Church. Abe Lillibridge collection, Idaho State University.

Many people from eastern
Idaho think they live in one of the most beautiful places in the United States.
One woman from Preston, returning home after years away, remarked that she was
glad to see that it was still true that in Cache Valley the sky is bluer and
the clouds are whiter than anywhere else she had been. It is to such people
that we dedicate this book.

AcknowledgmentsProduction of this
book was supported by the Ida Sarver Kackley and Lois Lynch Kackley Bear River
Endowment to Idaho State University, presented by Evan, Ellis and Alvin Kackley1974.
Invaluable assistance in preparation of the photographs and graphics of the
book was provided by Lisa Anderson, Dan Bruner, Josť Bunzow, Michelle Byrd,
Susan Duncan, Caryn Elliott, Randy Gaines, Scott Gerwe, Glenn Harvey, Brian
Hawk, Dee High and Dave Myers. We are grateful to Ron Hatzenbuehler, ISU History
Department, and Dave Rodgers and Tom Ore, ISU Geology Department, for invaluable
reviews. We thank the Bannock County Historical Museum, Idaho Museum of Natural
History, Eli Oboler Library, Ketchum-Sun Valley Community Library and the Smithsonian
Institution for use of photographs. Aerial photography would have been impossible
without H.Thomas Ore, our pilot and friend. We are especially indebted to our
friends and mentors Leigh Gittins and "Doc" Evan Kackley. Finally
we thank each other, for patience and good humor, during the four year production
of this book.